The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1928 TAMASESE COMES TO TOWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1928 TAMASESE COMES TO TOWN

ALTHOUGH the new*Administrator of Samoa is handling a diffi- ** cult legacy with great courage and a judicial quality of judgment, it is evident that these factors, couqfled with his personal popularity, have not yet sufficied to smooth the obstacles in his path, nor to restore more than a comparative measure of tranquillity in the islands. So fnuch is indifeated by the arrival here yesterday of the high chief, Tamasese. As with so many other political crusaders, Tamasese’s earnestness in his cause has betrayed him into actual breaches of the law; and a period of boisterous defiance, which, with its stone-throwing, jostling, and other picturesque hut bloodless { methods, hears a curious similarity to some of the tactics practised in New Zealand before the Maori War, has ended rather ignominiously in his incarceration in Mount Eden gaol.

Though it is plain that, by sending Tamasese to Mount Eden, the administrator is taking the risk of conferring upon the Mau leader the halo of martyrdom, it is easy to understand the circumstances which have compelled him to take this step. At present the most serious danger in Samoa is, not the Man itself, or any elements of potential bloodshed that it may represent, but the policy of subtle obstruction which, once instituted, has now so infected a large proportion of the native population that the commercial prosperity of the group is threatened. The disastrous effect of the non-payment of taxes upon the Samoan revenue necessitated a loan from New Zealand last year. The only levy which the department has been at all successful in collecting is the dog-tax, and this is collected by arming the inspectors with power to execute some such formula as: “Pay the tax, or I shoot the dog.” There is a laughable side to the picture of a Samoan dowager rushing off into the bush with her terrier, to save it from the inspector’s pistol; but the other side of the picture is less attractive, the representation of a crippled budget, with the distinct possibility that New Zealand may be called upon to make further advances, in order that essential services may he carried on. It was presumably found impossible to check the Mau’s obstructive methods while Tamasese held the stage. At all events he has now joined ljis fellow-countryman, the Hon. O. F. Nelson, in a period of exile from his native shores. The concurrent absence of these two leading figures in the Mau movement should allow the administration to determine whether the influences to which objection is taken can be checked while they are away. If this can be done, and the passive obstruction which is sapping Samoa’s vitality be eliminated, then the way will be open for overtures of wise conciliation and the present situation, with its distasteful recourses, may he terminated.

In the meantime it is interesting to speculate on the influence of the Samoan problem upon the political situation in New Zealand. If there is o#ie obstruction, plainer than another, on which the unofficial alliance between Labour and United will split, it is the question of Samoan policy. Mr. Holland, once a political prisoner himself, will probably champion Tamasese as a victim of oppression. Should Sir Joseph Ward decline to modify the Samoan policy, the United Government will have to rely on the Reform group for support, and the breach thus formed may precipitate incompatibility between the United and Labour parties on other and more vital questions.